The musician died after fighting cancer of the pancreas. Williams managed to top the charts back in 1955 with ‘Autumn Leaves’(2), which was originally a French piece. In 1947, the lyrics were converted to English and the song was released, leading Williams to be the first and only artist ever to have a number one piano solo in America.
Roger Williams regularly performed for US presidents including George W Bush, giving him the name ‘the pianist to the presidents’(3). He was the first pianist ever to be awarded with a star on Hollywood’s famous walk of fame(4), having released 116 albums by 2004. Sadly, he give his final performance in March of this year after confirming to the world that he had pancreatic cancer.
The famous pianist was born in Nebraska in 1924(5), and he began playing the piano aged just three years old. He then went on to major in piano when he attended Drake University(5) but was later expelled.
Then one evening, when Williams was due to play as an accompaniment to a student in a talent scout show, the singer failed to show and so Williams played as a solo artist and won. Luckily for him, a representative of a record company was present that night, and as a result he was signed(6). This was when his name was changed from Louis Weertz to Roger Williams.
After the number one Autumn Leaves, Roger Williams went on to release a further 22 popular hit singles(7) right through until 1969 including ‘Near You’ and ‘Born Free’. ‘Autumn Leaves’ remains the best selling piano solo ever made, selling over two million copies.
Since then Williams has touched many people with his heart warming piano pieces and he will be remembered for many, many years to come by both younger and older generations.
He was well known for his amazing talent and ability to switch between styles with little effort and wowed his audiences with every show that he performed. Williams’ final performance at the White House was back in 2008, when he played for the first lady at that time.
Williams once said that he had a piano teacher who would never play a song for him. She made him play the song from the sheet music in order that he would learn how to read the music for himself.
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15233231
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autumn_Leaves_(song)
- http://www.npr.org/2011/10/09/141192277/-roger-williams-pianist-to-the-presidents-dead
- http://www.walkoffame.com/roger-williams
- http://www.mrpianotoday.com/biography.htm
- http://prince.org/msg/8/368558
- http://www.timelessmusic.com/Bios/rogerwilliamsbio.html
Jenna Caruana - Jenna Caruana Writer
